Am I getting screwed?

Well I am going to pipe in here before the hubby does. He would tell you a couple shots of Jack Daniels would get you sleeping all day. Now I have trouble sleeping during the day as well for me it is just not natural. What I have found works for me is making the truck as dark as dark can be. If that means taping black garbage bags over the window so be it. My volvo has all the factory curtains I need so I can black out the inside just nice. Company trucks dont have these all in place so you have to get a little creative. If you have too use one sleeping bag to make a blackout room a second to sleep in.

 

When I first get on a night schedule, the first 2-3 days I sleep like crap but by the 3-4 day im so tired I get a full 10-12 hours of sleep. After that Its just like clockwork until I get my next load and it delivers at 10 pm when im usually waking up doh!!!!!

 

You don't seem to understand something ..........They don't care what you want .
You were hired to do a job and if you cant then they will find someone that can .

This trucking and freight goes when it is ready not when you are ready .
It is your job to be ready when the freight is ready to go and to be on time for delivery !

You solve this issue by manning up and do the job you were hired to do or get out of the way so someone that will do it can do it .
If you want set hours and set routes then go to yellow freight and good luck with that .
If you are a fresh new driver you have to do it the way it is not the way you want it to be .

Just because it was one way in one place has nothing to do with another city state and account .

You will learn to sleep any time place or position but for now just do what you can and expect the loads to be ready at night not at noon so you can sleep all night like you are back at home with mom !!!

No you are not being screwed you are being a whiner they said the load will be ready at 9pm so deal with it or you be real screwed real fast when they kick you to the curb and nobody will hire you .
You knew it was a night job when did you think you were going to sleep ?????

This the kind of thing that just kills allot of us old timers ! You new guys just seem to whine about the job when you were told what the job was going to be !!!
I remember my first few years I didn't care what or when I had to drive I was just glad to be driving ! I didn't ask what was the best tv or the best doohickey I just wanted to drive load the wagon and turn me loose but nowadays it is all poor me I don't or I can't or I want or I need ....it is just plain ridiculous what new drivers sound like anymore.

I will let every new driver in a little secret you have to be gone to drive a truck you cannot be home everyday and drive a truck unless you haul rock food fuel or drop and pick the big city.....and speaking from experience home everyday does not mean home all night every night in most cases.....so local is not all its cracked up to be either.

So to sum up the ramblings of and old man that has only been trucking for 33 years and don't know or understand anything about trucking.JUST BE THANKFUL YOU HAVE A JOB and for god sakes just get in the truck and drive and leave all drama out of trucking . If you need to be home then get a job in the regular world and live a regular life. Trucking is not regular in any way ....its not even screwed up like regular jobs !!!!!

 

Oh and your better off accepting the load and trying to make it, if you get to tired take a nap or shutdown and send message that your to tired to drive safely. Just declining the load makes them think your playing games or at the casino or just plain lazy and not willing to work.

 

Very refreshing to see this point of view. I talk to a lot of drivers who have the attitude that they can do whatever they want and they are too valuable to lose.

Wrong on both counts. If a company is paying you a check, they have every right to tell you what to do. Period. And NO ONE is irreplaceable. I can't help but laugh when someone says "I told my fleet manager to go F himself!" Yeah, and then he wonders why he only gets 1000 miles per week. Lol.

You do have the right to shut down the truck if driving it would be a safety hazard. But you can't abuse that. They're not going to put up with you being too tired to drive every day.

I've shut the truck down on 3 occasions in my 16 months here that weren't related to mechanical stuff. Twice I was too tired to drive, and the third time I was very sick.

The company's response? "10-4, let us know if you need it repower end to deliver on time."

But then again, I don't abuse the privelidge either.

OP, don't become THAT driver. Work your butt off and try... And then if you still can't make it, your dispatcher with have a LOT more respect for you because you at least gave it a shot.

 

Sorry but, just because I work for a company, they do NOT have the right to run me any way they see fit.
I am not, and never will be, a slave.

They tried pulling that on me just today.
Pick up a live load at 1400, near the end of my hours for the day, and deliver nearly 400 miles away at 0800 tomorrow.
Then pick up a load at 2300 that night (09/06) to deliver 09/08 at 0600 - 1100 miles away.

I ended up taking the first load, but I'll deliver it at 1000. It is a t-call, so the time really doesn't matter.
I turned down the second load because I would not have been able to get enough sleep that day to drive 500-600 miles that night safely, plus that load was way too tight on time.
My DM agreed with me, and I had spoken to him before responding to either plan.


The 'company' will try to push you into unsafe driving practices.
If we let them, then we are really the only ones that suffer.
Well, us and the people we injure and kill along the way because we are too 'macho' to be responsible enough.

 

question: am i getting screwed?
answer: i dont know, i quit hiding in your closet

dont blame me....the medicine monkey wrote that

 

pull open deck and it's a much more like a regular job with normal hours. only once this year have I had to load or unload outside the normal business hours.

 

it's not so much new drivers, it's the majority attitude of the lady couple generations. in my not so humble opinion, 98 percent of anyone under the age of 50 is a useless waste of oxygen. just look at who we vote into office, the people that will give us more free stuff. America, the land of the brave, had become the land of five me free stuff